1. FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to apparatus for, and a method of, dialyzing blood and, more particularly, to an artificial replacement kidney which is implanted in a human body and includes a non-liquid, absorbent member for receiving and passing biologically active material, which is removed from the blood to the body ureter.
2. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART
When an individual's biological kidney malfunctions, the individual's blood becomes contaminated with excess biologically active material such as, for example, toxicants, metabolites, nutrients, and/or medicaments. Heretofore, there have been two basic approaches to removing such biologically active material.
One such approach has been a hemo-dialysis machine to which the user is periodically "hooked-up". With the use of a hemo-dialysis machine, the blood to be dialyzed is withdrawn from an individual's artery and passed over one side of a semi-permeable membrane which allows the biologically active material to pass therethrough without allowing the blood to pass. On the opposite side of the membrane, a dialyzing fluid is provided for carrying away the biologically active material to a remote location where it is filtered. Such a prior art device is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,489,647 issued to T. Kolobow on Jan. 13, 1970. This concept was also alluded to in an article entitled The Model and Simulation of A New Artificial Kidney, published in the Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference on Engineering in Medicine and Biology, Washington, DC, U.S.A., on or about Nov. 10, 1970 by Reuben G. Carbonell, Edward F. Leonard and Louis Theodore.
In an Aug. 10, 1967 edition of the Washington Post, a Washington Post staff writer, Nate Hastltine, discussed an artificial kidney which could be installed within the body, but it included a foot long cylinder of hollow fiber tubes and also utilized a dialyzing fluid which was introduced to the device and removed from it by outside the body techniques.
The second basic prior art approach to dialyzing human blood, is sometimes referred to as the peritoneal method which disposes a quantity of dialyzing fluid, such as 0.5 percent dextrose solution, within the individual's abdominal cavity. The serous membrane, which lines the cavity of the individual's abdomen, functions as a dialyzing membrane which allows the biologically active material embedded in the blood stream to pass inwardly through the serous membrane to the dialyzing fluid. This fluid must be withdrawn and replaced several times a day and requires a catheter to be coupled to the abdomen. The peritoneal method functions 24 hours a day, however, the dialyzing fluid must be withdrawn several times a day whereas a hemo-dialysis machine is intermittently operated. For example, a hemo-dialysis machine may be operated six hours every day and a half to two days. Older individuals frequently cannot utilize the peritoneal approach because they are not physically able to withstand the surgical operation required to insert the catheter which is utilized to extract and insert the dialyzing fluid to the abdomen.
The prior art devices which have been used heretofore truly are not true artificial organs in that they are not implanted in the body and require continuous maintenance and the dialyzing fluid must be continually carried away from the body.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a new and novel hemo-dialysis machine and method which will be substantially less expensive and time consuming than have been the prior art hemo-dialysis machines.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and apparatus for extracting biologically active material from human blood and which can be implanted in the body.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an artificial kidney which can be permanently implanted in a body and which can function without outside the body resources and/or dialyzing fluid.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a new and novel hemo-dialysis machine of the type described which is substantially reduced in size compared to the hemo-dialysis machine utilized heretofore.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a hemo-dialysis machine which does not require a dialyzing fluid.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a dialysis machine which does not include a dialyzing fluid which is pumped away from the body.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a dialysis machine and method which utilizes a non-liquid material for receiving the biologically active material extracted from the user's bloodstream.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an artificial replacement kidney implant which utilizes sponge material for carrying away the biologically active material to the body ureter.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an artificial replacement kidney implant which utilizes an absorbent material having a plurality of drain tubes therein for carrying away the biologically active material.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an artificial replacement kidney implant which implant of the type described which communicates the biologically active material extracted from the blood to the ureter of the human body.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art as the description thereof proceeds.